[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 203 (Wednesday, October 21, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 56146-56147]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-28150]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
Final Administrative Changes to the Coastal Nonpoint Pollution
Control Program Guidance and Responses to Comments
AGENCY: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S.
Department of Commerce, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
ACTION: Notice of Availability of Final Administrative Changes to the
Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Program Guidance and Responses to
Comments.
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SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given of the availability of the Final
Administrative Changes to the Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control
Program Guidance (Administrative Changes), developed under section 6217
of the Coastal Zone Act Reauthorization Amendments of 1990 (CZARA), 16
U.S.C. section 1455b, and of the Responses to Comments on the Proposed
Administrative Changes, CZARA requires States and Territories with
coastal zone management programs that have received approval under
section 306 of the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) to develop and
implement coastal nonpoint pollution control programs. Coastal states
and territories were required to submit their coastal nonpoint programs
to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for approval in July 1995
In response to coastal states' concerns over the ability to target
the program; enforceable policies and mechanisms; timeframes; and
resources to implement coastal nonpoint programs, NOAA and EPA
completed a dialogue with the coastal states and other interested
parties, resulting in a draft set of administrative changes. The draft
administrative changes were made available for public comment (FR,
March 12, 1998, Vol. 63, Number 48, pages 12078-12079) prior to
producing the final guidance.
ADDRESSES: Copies of the Final Administrative Changes and Responses to
Comments may be obtained upon request from: Joseph P. Flanagan, Coastal
Programs Division (N/ORM3), Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource
Management, NOS, NOAA, 1305 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, Maryland
20910, telephone: (301) 713-3121, x201; e-mail:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
Background
Subsequent to the 1990 enactment of the CZARA, in January 1993, EPA
and NOAA published two documents to guide the development of States'
(and Territories') coastal nonpoint pollution control programs:
Guidance Specifying Management Measures for Sources of Nonpoint
Pollution in Coastal Waters and Program Development and Approval
Guidance. These provided both technical and programmatic guidance on
program development. Subsequently, EPA and NOAA provided further
program clarification in a January 6, 1995 letter and a March 16, 1995
document entitled Flexibility for State Coastal Nonpoint Programs.
These actions provided greater flexibility to States in prioritizing
their activities; extended the implementation period from three years
to five years; and clarified the range of enforceable policies and
mechanisms that could be sued by States to implement their programs.
The letters also established the principle that, in recognition of the
complexity of the program, States could be granted conditional approval
for programs that are not yet fully approvable, thereby affording more
time for States to fully develop their programs.
As of the date of this notice, NOAA and EPA have provided
conditional approval to the 29 coastal States that submitted programs
for approval. In April, 1997, NOAA, EPA, the States and other
interested parties began discussions regarding the progress made to
date in developing and implementing CZARA programs and the significant
impediments to further progress. Both the States and Federal agencies
recognized that while the goals of the CZARA program remain valid, the
program and schedules originally conceived by NOAA and EPA were
extremely ambitious and additional flexibility would be needed to
enable the States to successfully implement their programs. Based on
this understanding, the parties proceeded to discuss in detail the
specific aspects of the program that would require modification while
maintaining the overall objective that States implement management
measures needed to protect coastal waters.
Based on these discussions, EPA and NOAA drafted a set of
administrative changes that the agencies proposed to use to guide
future implementation of the CZARA program. After reviewing public
comments that were submitted in response to the March 12, 1998 Federal
Register notice on the availability of the proposed administrative
changes, NOAA and EPA developed these final administrative changes to
the program guidance. In some cases, these changes may impact previous
findings and conditions to State programs. In such cases, EPA and NOAA
will review those findings and conditions and make any necessary
adjustments to those findings and conditions (including, where
appropriate, elimination of conditions).
On October 18, 1997, the 25th anniversary of the Clean Water Act,
Vice President Gore directed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
and Department of Agriculture (USDA) to work with other Federal
agencies (including NOAA) to develop a Clean Water Action Plan within
120 days. In a memorandum for Heads of Departments and Agencies, the
Vice President specifically requested Federal agencies to ``* * *
develop a
[[Page 56147]]
comprehensive Action Plan that builds on the * * * clean water
successes over the past five years and addresses three major goals:
enhanced protection from public health threats posed by water
pollution; more effective control of polluted runoff; and promotion of
water quality protection on a watershed basis.'' The Action Plan is
informed by the following principles:
Agencies will develop cooperative approaches that promote
coordination and reduce duplication among Federal, State and local
agencies and Tribal governments wherever possible.
Agencies will ensure participation of community groups and
the public to the maximum extent practicable. Such participation will
include community and public access to information, to protect the
public's right-to-know about water quality issues.
Agencies will emphasize innovative approaches to pollution
control, including, where appropriate, incentives, market-based
mechanisms, and cooperative partnerships with landowners and other
private parties.
On February 19, 1998, President Clinton announced the Clean Water
Action Plan to restore and protect America's waters. NOAA and EPA view
these administrative changes as supporting the goals of the President's
Clean Water Action Plan to reduce polluted runoff in coastal areas. In
particular, these changes respond to the following key action included
in the Clean Water Action Plan.
NOAA and EPA will work with coastal states and territories to
ensure that they have developed programs to reduce polluted runoff
in coastal areas and that these programs are at least conditionally
approved by June 1998 and that all programs are fully approved by
December 1999, with appropriate state-enforceable policies and
mechanisms.
The Final Administrative Changes provide guidance to the States on
how NOAA and EPA intend to exercise their discretion in implementing
the Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Program. As such, these Final
Administrative Changes, as well as the previously issued guidance they
modify, are not regulations.
(Federal Domestic Assistance Catalog 11.419 Coastal Zone Management
Program Administration)
Dated: October 15, 1998.
Captain Evelyn J. Fields,
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Ocean Services and Coastal Zone
Management, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
J. Charles Fox,
Acting Assistant Administrator for Water, Environmental Protection
Agency.
[FR Doc. 98-28150 Filed 10-20-98; 8:45 am]
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